Anna's Learning Journey

Hi there ! Welcome you to my blog. This is a place where I present my e-learning process and valuable work.

[annanguyen1807]

Entry 1 | What is a good blog? What sort of learner am I?

“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” - Brian Clark

I believe that nobody makes their own blog without intention; furthermore, writing a personal blog is not a new trend today. The blog is defined as an online journal or informational website in which someone can share information or their opinion on a variety of topics. Some of them use it as a digital diary and they tend to write everything they want to or feel inspired by that is simply to tell stories and show their own feelings about certain issues without personal identification, whereas others use the blog for some interesting purposes like sharing their discoveries, tourism, fashion, beauty, food, and so on. It can be not exaggerate to say that the blog represent people’s personality and creativity because they can use it to show who they are and what they are thinking about in the different way that nobody can do the same things except for duplication.

To me, the blog seems to be a small world for me to reflect on my learning journey and personal development. I think that the good blog is a visual learning platform where people share and learn from each other. People may contribute and give insightful feedbacks to someone’ s work. In addition, every person is a limited version. They have their own thoughts and experiences that someone else may need it for their learning, improvement or enlightenment. Hence, do not hesitate to share knowledge, information or at least ideas that you think it is helpful because you might not know the outcome that you can bring positivity or inspiration to other people somehow.

Furthermore, I’m an independent learner and I prefer working alone rather than in a team, but I can work well when I’m in a group because I believe that a good learner can learn from others instead of insisting on his ideas right all the time. Also, I prefer auditory learning because this learning approach not only provides knowledge but also helps me to feel someone’s voice, emotion and insightful thoughts. Regardless of learning styles, I think every person can comprehend and gain knowledge in their favourite way. We can learn more but cannot give up our learning style, and writing a blog can be a good method for us to try when the digital learning tend to become more common than the traditional way these day.

[annanguyen1807]

Entry 6 | Summative Reflection

"I had never thought that I would love to study education until I study E-learning unit".

A little bit about my background is that I graduated with a Bachelor of Business English and had over five years of experience in consulting for Canada’s overseas study and immigration. As a response to Entry 1, I believe that I am an auditory learner because I prefer listening to people sharing their knowledge, thoughts, insights and emotions. Hence, I can identify what personality they are and stimulate them to discuss what they are thinking about various aspects of life. It means I like face-to-face meetings rather than online conversations. Furthermore, although I was born in the era of the Internet, I am not really a tech-savvy person.

I remembered that I used to dislike joining online classes. However, when Covid-19 broke out, there were many limitations and challenges for people to connect directly. This is a period in which the digital revolution has significantly developed and people need to change their way of interacting, working, teaching and learning. Today, people tend to prefer working from home, studying through digital platforms, and contacting colleagues/peers via social networks. This makes me more fascinated by technology than I used to be. Therefore, I have enjoyed the E-learning unit and gained a lot of knowledge from this.

Through Assessment 1 - An educational blog, I have learnt how to create a blog and share my learning journey. To be honest, I never write a blog before, so it is challenging for me to get familiar with this platform. I have learnt how to create a blog, edit its appearance, and share content. Although there is a problem that WordPress via the university’s website could not be accessed, I already created successfully a blog on Tumblr which is simpler and easier to use than WordPress - I think. Furthermore, 6 entries in the blog including Podcast, SAMR model, Video recording, critical thinking, text response and reflection, ... give me to experience new colourful creative learning. I have chances to enjoy interesting lessons, find out new information and knowledge, and learn from my peers; especially, we work together and have a lot of fun doing tasks.

For me, my favourite part of assessment 1 is Gamification/Quiz platforms because I can learn and entertain at the same time. Also, the atmosphere is relaxable in the classroom due to learning through play. However, although games can make lessons more fascinating, I do not agree that they can boost children’s intelligence and productivity, but distract children from studying and focusing on fun (refer to my Entry 5).

Overall, e-learning is a revolutionary and creative learning approach; however, it can require learners to have basic technology skills for them to gain knowledge from it. Furthermore, it can be challenging for developing countries to implement e-learning due to lack of advanced technology and tech-savvy teachers, but anyway it cannot be denied its benefits to make education more interesting, attractive and approachable for everyone, age, personalities,...

[annanguyen1807]

Entry 5 | Do you think games can make kids smarter?

Based on the video of TEDxKids@Brussels - Gabe Zichermann - Gamification, I'd like to express my thought to answer the question whether games can make children more intelligent.

Games are leisure activities that are dispensable in human life today. It can be introduced in two ways such as electronic or non-electronic. Not only the young generations but the older ones tend to play games for entertainment or fun. Furthermore, some teachers can make or find some games in order to introduce in the classroom aiming at stimulating children's curiosity and the spirit of learning. Hence, there is an increasingly popular idea that games can make kids smarter. It can be understandable why some people advocate this statement. One explanation for this is that kids tend to increase cognitive and skill development when playing games because of being multitasking. Many games can require players to seriously focus and use their senses if they would like to win by detecting, having plans, overcoming obstacles/challenges, reacting faster, beating opponents or even practising memorization.

Although there are many benefits for children from playing games, I partially agree that games enhance children’s intelligence, to be honest.

From my perspective, games can be one of the distractions that make kids pay less attention to studying. Although there are a lot of educational games that can support children in their learning and make them interested in lessons, there are still some limitations. For instance, depending on children’s personalities and favourite game types, they can choose different games that suit their styles, which shows that not all games can satisfy young generations. Moreover, some evidence shows that many teenagers can commit crimes or have bad habits when engaging in games. For example, many Vietnamese children who are under 18 tend to steal their parents’ money for online games. When they are addicted to those games, they do not care about life, daily routines, school, relationships, friends or even family. That is why I think this claim can be relatively true, not totally. Also, we cannot take the example of some intelligent kids who play games for educational purpose to prove that all children can be well educated and developed by games.

Overall, games are activities that need to be added to teaching for making the lessons more understandable, and approachable. Besides that, it also contributes students to finding interest in learning. However, it still depends on the insight and hobby of every child and whether they would like to use games as tools for learning skills or fun only. This requires teachers have the right guidelines before introducing games in the classroom and do not make children neglect lessons.

[annanguyen1807]

Entry 4 | E-Learning Affordances Video

Based on the work of Cope & Kalantzis, Vivi, Lina and me made a video about the multimodal meaning aspect of the 7 e-affordances, with examples from each of our specialisations and fields.

With 5 years of experience in the consulting field. I had chances to use multimodal meaning in my consultation with clients. This method is advantageous for me in both interaction and target achievement.

Let's watch and share your thoughts.

[annanguyen1807]

Entry 3 | SAMR model - Exploring building C

I am studying at Victoria University Footscray. Suddenly all the lights go out, only the exit signs and the outside lights through the windows are visible… so what happens next?

Let's see how I try to to find out the way to escape from the university.

Please let me know what you think about this.

ExploringBuildingC-Anna.pptx

EXPLORING BUILDING C I am studying at Victoria University Footscray. Suddenly all the lights go out, only the exit signs and the outside lig

[annanguyen1807]

Teaching methods among Vietnam, China and Australia.

When it comes to the topic of teaching methods, I and Vivi (my classmate) decided to have a small talk about the differences in teaching methods among Vietnam, China and Australia. We shared our thoughts and feelings; furthermore, there is no stereotype to any country's teaching approaches.

Podcast - The difference in teaching methods among Vietnam, China and Australia. | Anh Nguyen’s Podcast

A small talk between 2 students who come from Vietnam and China about the teaching methods in their country compared to that of Australia. 

[annanguyen1807]

Entry 2 | Should computers (technology) replace teachers?

I believe that although technology is a revolutionary invention of human beings and it makes our life better and easier, it cannot substitute teachers in the future for some reasons. This is my podcast to respond to this issue.

Hope you enjoy it and please kindly share your thoughts.

Should technology replace teachers? | Anh Nguyen’s Podcast

Although technology has brought many benefits to education, it can't replace teachers with some reasons. Let's listen to the podcast and fig